Stevenson, Roger

Military Instructions for Officers Detached in the Field: Containing a Scheme for forming a Corps of a Partisan. Illustrated with Plans of the Manoeuvres Necessary in Carrying On the Petite Guerre. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by R. Aitken, 1775



12mo (6 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.; 159 x 95 mm). 12 engraved plates (7 folding); upper margin of title torn without loss, some browning, spotting and staining throughout, upper outer corner of pages 145 & 147 torn without loss. Contemporary sheep; rebacked, three corners mended.

BL/American War of Independence 62; Evans 14475; Hildeburn 3290; Howes S981; Sabin 91607; Spaulding & Karpinski 319

First American edition and the first book dedicated to George Washington. Stevenson's instructions on guerilla tactics were particularly applicable to the Revolutionary campaigns.

The fulsome dedication to Washington, though signed by the editor, was certainly the work of the publisher, Robert Aitken. The actual editor of the work, Hugh Henry Ferguson—though married to the Philadelphia litterateur and socialite Elizabeth Graeme, a close acquaintance of Washington—was a notorious British sympathizer and served as General Howe's commissary of prisoners.